Kevin Haskin: Big Fox helps Big 12 become big player

Wise development of relationship between league, network reflected in new TV deal

The rich kitty gets split just 10 ways. National platforms escalate. Every home football game televised. Round robin schedule intact.

Few surprises were unveiled Friday when the Big 12 announced its new media rights agreements with ESPN and Fox Sports.

Just confirmation that in the span of one short year the Big 12 re-established itself as a powerhouse — one envied by other high-level conferences that chose to expand.

Thanks, Chuck Neinas, for knowing how to steer the life raft.

Thanks, Bob Bowlsby, for accepting the commissioner’s job full time and providing instant credibility.

Thanks, ESPN, for sticking with longtime programming and continuing to value Big 12 basketball so strongly.

And thanks, Fox Sports, for upgrading alternatives to include Big Fox and the over-air network exposure it provides.

“It gives us a very public and a very business-oriented substantiation of the commitment that our 10 institutions have to one another privately,’’ Bowlsby said.

“I think many were concerned we were going to come off the rails again at some point in time. This demonstrates that’s not going to happen, that we’re going to be partners for a long period.’’

By moving forward in lockstep, the Big 12 solidifies a footprint that looked disjointed following the addition of West Virginia.

Eventually, however, the television partners did not consider recent comings and goings a hindrance. Not after Big 12 members agreed to a 13-year grant of rights in exchange for a reported $2.6 billion deal, which pays each school roughly $20 million annually through 2024-25. Third-tier rights will fetch even more money, and find Fox involved with Big 12 members on that front.

The new arrangement with Big Fox will get punctuated in hi-def on Sept. 22 -- the one-year anniversary, it just so happens, of Dan Beebe's resignation as Big 12 commissioner.

Although executives would not confirm the teams in that 6:30 p.m. premiere, it is sure to feature the Big 12’s showcase game that day — Kansas State against Oklahoma, from Owen Field, in Norman.

Credit Big 12 administrators, past and present, for their conviction to maintaining agreements with Fox. According to a Big 12 source, it was Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds who once advised his conference colleagues that competition was needed to prevent ESPN from cornering the market in college athletics. Doubt, however, that you'll hear that story on the Longhorn Network.

Over time, we watched as Fox Sports grew to where it wants Big 12 football as part of its Saturday night network sports package.

Initially we laughed when football was squeezed into an FX window between reruns of The A-Team. Eventually we enjoyed Emily Jones offering Texas flair, Jim Knox hoof-racing Ralphie (face it, we all miss Ralphie) and Dave Lapham getting out the big boy pads.

“It was very important to Fox and a paramount driving force in entering this new agreement to improve our picks,’’ said Karen Brodkin, a Fox Sports executive. “To bring Big 12 football to a broadcast network, you want to bring premiere games. We look forward to enjoying more preferred picks.’’

“The conference is the biggest winner because now they have a bigger national platform,’’ added another Fox exec, Larry Jones.

Indeed, enough apparent windows (some starting at a boozy 8:15 p.m.) enabled Fox and ESPN to see through this deal and agree to share Big 12 inventory ... even though the 10-team membership could create weeks where pickings are slim if one monumental clash is evident.

That is the one potential drawback to partnering with a league that is not even large enough to authorize a championship game.

Yet because the televison deal was struck, the Big 12 is not outwardly seeking new partners.

“We have a lot going for us and we ought to be slow to share that unless someone brings extraordinary cachet,’’ Bowlsby said.

Now that the new Big 12 television deal is finalized in ink, the new commissioner’s familiar stance sounds even stronger.